Jim Morrison's an American Prayer [Paperback]

Jim Morrison (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: B of a Communications Co (July 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0915628465
• ISBN-13: 978-0915628469
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #210,377 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "An American Prayer" vs. "American Prayer" Sanitized, March 4, 2005

By 

Robert J. Thomas - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jim Morrison's an American Prayer (Paperback)

"AN AMERICAN PRAYER" was published privately by Jim Morrison in the summer of 1970 as a limited edition of 500 red leather-bound, cover gilded with title & author "JIM MORRISON", by Western Lithographers (of Los Angeles) copyright 1970 James Douglas Morrison. Jim had recited this publicly in Spring 1969 at poetry readings with his friend who encouraged publishing his works privately, beat poet Michael McClure. The long-form poem first appeared in print as an untitled poem at the conclusion of Jerry Hopkins' Rolling Stone interview of Morrison in Issue #38 July 26, 1969 - Jim's private edition a year later was almost identical. On his last birthday, Dec 8, 1970, Jim recorded three hours of his poetry with friends Frank & Kathy Lisciandro, Alan Ronay, a swedish girl, and a fifth of Irish whiskey presented to Jim by studio engineer John Haeny as a birthday gift. "An American Prayer" was among the selections Jim read from neatly typed pages he brought to the session. This recording headlined the posthumous 1978 LP album of the same name, credited to "Jim Morrison, Music By The Doors", along with other recordings from that night as well as another recording session in Mar '69. The CD was released by Elektra in 1995 with a few bonus tracks and a front-cover insert booklet that was a reprint in miniature of the 8-page libretto that graced early editions of the LP - the booklet is illustrated with photos and drawings by Jim, and concludes with the complete lyrics of the recorded "An American Prayer" which is more than 90% of Jim's privately published book with all its primal, albeit crude, imagery intact. The typeset and format is identical to the stanzas printed by Jim. If Elektra had the b*lls to publish Jim's words as written and spoken by him, then Zeppelin Publishing Company did not even have the cahonies - therefore only a 4-star rating from this reviewer.

"A B of A Company, Louisiana, Baton Rouge", Zeppelin published two editions Copyright 1984, one titled on the spine and the cover "AMERICAN PRAYER" JIM MORRISON - illustrated against a red background with what appears to be a landing eagle about to perch on a muscled adonis statue posed with its back to the viewer (The same illustration appears on the cover of another Zeppelin publication "Light My Fire"). The other edition has a white cover with only the printing "Jim Morrison's AN AMERICAN PRAYER" and the "Zeppelin...Rouge" inscription at the bottom. Both versions have the same ISBN 0-915628-46-5 identified here on Amazon.com. Interestingly a Publisher's Note inside begins "This is a collector's book", suggesting the optimal state of mind, reading methodology, and reader motivation, then closes with "It is a good book", followed by "COPYRIGHT 1984 The B of A Company as Trustee for the various Copyright interests: Jim Morrison, The Estate of Pamela Coursen (misspelled, should be Courson), Zeppelin Publishing Company, and others. The book has every left page fully illustrated with art and photos (even the closeted Jim Morrison TV picture from the Prayer LP inside gatefold) that often complement the stanza printed on the facing right page. The poetry is pretty much true to Jim's original except for a few harmless word omissions or preposition swaps, but there are a couple glaring edits that can only be interpreted as sanitizing censorship that must have registered on the Richter Scale near Pere Lachaise cemetary in Paris when first published. Below are the 'edits' and the (original):

Cling to 'Darwinian organs' of despair (c*nts & c*cks)

We got our final vision by 'the disease' (clap)


A night of 'Light' (Lust)


...vegetable law
'For those who have not been blesed' has been inserted, blessed misspelled.

Hopefully someday the Courson and Morrison estates will publish or sell the publishing rights of the complete 3-4 hour American Prayer recording session from Jim's last birthday - what a great box set this would be!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Words you know., September 25, 2000

By 

"jd_morrison_82" (Logansport, In USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jim Morrison's an American Prayer (Paperback)

It is a short book, but the words are as powerful as you know them to be. His words don't define an era. They define a creed. A creed so strong that his albums sell more now than when they were released. His desparity his yurn for people to see the truth as he saw it. I can find myself. I can find myself in the choas of this world through his work. I like this book and his others. Great reading. I am surprised amazon could find it.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Rip-off, plain and simple., April 7, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Jim Morrison's an American Prayer (Paperback)

You should anotate that this joker out of Louisiana is NOT theJim Morrison from the Doors. He claims he is channeling Jim's words.He's just ripping people off. His publisher is B of A something or other, but it's a scam. Anyway, thanks for the time. Dread and the Hillside Dance